Matt Leinart doesn't want to be a backup quarterback

FOX’s Jay Glazer joined the Dan Patrick Show Wednesday to talk about Leinart. Glazer says he’s received calls from teams that wanted a reference on Leinart’s character. (Glazer has worked out Leinart in the past through his MMA training.)

Leinart didn’t know teams were calling about him, but he made his wishes clear to Glazer: Leinart doesn’t want to be a backup quarterback. He feels “He’s done enough in this league . . . he wants to be a starter somewhere.”

Wait, what?

In his appearances since 2006, including six starts, Leinart has thrown three touchdowns and eight interceptions. That’s enough to just show up as a starter somewhere?

Leinart is getting bad advice or just remains clueless about his value. He’s not the hot young prospect anymore; he’s David Carr. A best case scenario for Leinart would be to find the right situation as a backup where he could learn a productive offense, and rehab his value should he get a chance on the field.

Saying he’s “done enough” in the NFL will only cause teams to think twice about Leinart.

If he doesn’t want to be a backup, he may have to think hard about whether he wants to be a NFL quarterback at all.

89 responses to “Matt Leinart doesn't want to be a backup quarterback”

He likely could start for the Panthers.
Matt Moore cant play now that teams have had a chance to see his tendencies. Clausen likely wont be able to play simply because there hasnt been a NFL caliber QB come from Notre Dame since Steve Beurlein.
Kravon
PFT Charter Member

He’s right, he’s not a back-up. He’s a third stringer at best. And as I mentioned in an earlier reply, aren’t those positions usually held for youngsters with upside and promise. He has neither. AND a noodle arm. Those soft, arcing perfect spirals just don’t get it done in the NFL. The DB’s are too fast.

Gregg, you are, in fact, a moron. However, I have to agree with you here.
I can’t stand Leinart. I cannot believe that I actually thought he was going to be a hall of fame QB once upon a time… though at that time I was probably 18 years old.
I feel horrible for the Cards’ WRs… and fans…

Then he should have played like a starter…seriously. Look at his competition (this year), who the hell could he start for? A back-up job is about all he can hope for. If he wants to start then he needs to familiarize himself with the UFL and look for a team that has the yard marker as their starting QB

Lets see, stand on the sidelines with a clipboard getting paid millions or at least hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, or learn the phrase “would you like some fries with your whopper sir”.
Doesn’t seem like a difficult choice, but Leinart has never seemed particularly smart to me.

David Carr? Who got like 5 full seasons as a starter before it was obvious he wasn’t starter material?
This is comparable to a guy sitting behind a likely HOF’er(not in my opinion tho) for the early part of his career who only got 6 starts?
WTF? This is analysis you get paid for?
I’m amazed the Cards still think Anderson is a better option after seeing what he did in Cleveland the past few years. At least with Leinart you might have an upside there if you’re willing to be patient.

This is great…..this guy thinks he’s a starter. He should be happy if any team want’s him. Hope he was smart with his money because I don’t see him in the league that much longer…… noone wants a southpaw with an attitude.

in all fairness to matt is he never played 16 gameshe plays a game or 2 then he is benched ,i guess his employers see him as a back up at best,but to win the heisman and be a spot starter for 10 games has to be a blow to his ego

This is why the idea of the Raiders having interest in this guy has to be bogus. He’s a carbon copy of “I’m doing everything right” JaMarcus, every bit as delusional. At least Jamarcus could blame purple drank on his delusions, what’s your excuse Matt? Look at game film of Steve Young Matt, you’re no Steve Young.

Yet another Leinart bashing posts. Everyone in the football world has bashed him since he was drafted, and now you guys don’t even want to let him prove if he can play or not.
Saying that a few spot starts here and there determine whether or not he’s a good qb is ridiculous. Give the man a chance, stop being so biased.

Leinart seems like a better starting quarterback than a lot of these teams have going on right now…Jake Delhomme? I’m not a Leinart fan but if you’re one of these teams without a solid QB and not much shot at winning then why not take a chance?
By the way the SEASON PREVIEW: NEW ROLES front feature story picture is hilarious!

There’s more to this story than meets the eye. Leinart has shown flashes but I still question his overall maturity. All is not lost here but I’d like to see him get another shot at becoming a starter. Wisenhunt didn’t draft him so their’s no allegiance. Disagree all you want but for the right coach there may be plenty there to salvage.

kravon…Clausen likely wont be able to play simply because there hasnt been a NFL caliber QB come from Notre Dame since Steve Beurlein.
So..what your saying is..Since Notre Dame hasnt had a NFL quality starter recently..Claussen wont succeed. thats a brilliant outlook. The SCHOOL decides your talents. I see. So when Joe Montana came out…ND at the time developed quality NFL starters? The trainers and coaches you say? Develop the player? So his talents are insignificant then. OK..just trying to follow you here. Once upon a time ND maybe developed the greatest QB ever to live. But now..they forgot all that. And now develop chumps. Got it.
I have a better theroy though. Although the Big 10 seems to develop linebackers like I develop diareha after a bachelor party, its still all on the player. NFL coaches and developmental personell are, in majority, much more qualified than college ones. My point is..since bad QBs went to ND in the 80s and 90s doesnt neccesarily mean that Jimmy Claussen isnt a good, or will be a good NFL QB.
Just try to make more sense.,.thats all.
And no..I am not Jimmy Claussen

He likely could start for the Panthers.
Matt Moore cant play now that teams have had a chance to see his tendencies. Clausen likely wont be able to play simply because there hasnt been a NFL caliber QB come from Notre Dame since Steve Beurlein.
This is probably the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen. Assuming Clausen can’t play because no QB’s have been that good coming out of Notre Dame. Clausen is getting rave reviews. Has looked solid in preseason. Stupid. People like you shouldn’t be aloud to even watch football because you have no clue.

i disagre hes david carr.. i mean i c where the statement comes from but i would muchhh rather had david carr leading my team than lienart.. lienart has had a good team around him his whole career.. and just sucks. lol carr had a new addition to nfl team in the texans . he was on my team last yr the giants and i liked what i seen.. carr in my opinion is better than alex smith and would take the team farther..he needs another start.. AND PLEASE GIANTS PLEASE DONT TAKE LIENART!!

He has completed 83% of his limited passes this preseason. Though a lot have been checkdowns, that is still good along with no INT’s. Anderson is very erratic. He did complete 2 passes for a complete game one time.

Lets see, Leinart doesnt want to be a back up, and none of the fans around the NFL want him starting for their favorite team, respectively….
Fortunately, him and the fans will get what they want when he is out of the league, I think I would call Jeff George before Matt Leinart if I was looking for a QB…

Dude has 3 incompletions this preseason and no picks. I dont get why the cardnials wont give him a shot in the season and see if he can do it. If he is terrible for 2 meaniful games then make the switch. He doesn’t have to throw for 4,000 yards and be kurt warner all he has to do is manage the game and have the team win.

Matt has clearly reading the Kordell Stewart playbook on how to ruin your value as a qb in the NFL. Now, if only “super-agent” Leigh Steinberg can find some schmuck owner stupid enough to sign him for a long-term deal with tens of millions in guaranteed money, he will complete his transformation from a semi-talented qb to an untouchable pariah who can only get a job on Joes vs. Pro’s.
Good luck on that Matt. Usually works out well for guys.

I’m good enough to take a snap and checkdown. Can I be a starter too? I’ll take the rookie minimum and even put in the contract to take my issues to the coach and not the media.
Beat it honkeytain! Go get ready for the welfare line in 5 years or less.

somebody said:
“I’m amazed the Cards still think Anderson is a better option after seeing what he did in Cleveland the past few years.”
Except that he didn’t have people like Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston to catch the ball in Cleveland. He had Braylon “Stonehands” Edwards and Syndric “Who?” Steptoe and the like. Yes, Edwards was an asset in 2007 when DA put together a Pro Bowl year, but that was before he was suddenly afflicted with the inability to catch. That came out of nowhere in 2008.
I think the chances are just as good as not that DA might be able to get back to being a decent QB having the help he does now. Let’s face it- the last couple years in Cleveland, he had ZERO talent around him to work with.

I don’t blame him,he has been a backup since whisenhunt came and wants his chance to start.if he was good enough to start his first 2 years which were ended by injuries then whisenhunt should give him a fair shot which he has not.he may well suck but how do you know for sure?first he rotates him with warner then gives warner the job because he is the veteran.ok that worked out for them and leinart did not bitch and moan about it but then he gives the job to anderson because leinart did what was asked of him?just say he did not fit your philosophy or whatever and let him go. if he sucks then nobody will want him right?and isn’t standing up for yourself showing passion which is what florio keeps saying he doesn’t have?what more can he possibly learn by going to a new team and being a backup?

Leinart is Carr?! The _only_ way thats true is they both want to start. Carr is better than Leinart in almost every meaningful and valuable way. Show me a person who wants Leinart over Carr and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t know much about Football, or care for team morale.

Has this guy ever had a real shot to be a starter? Whisenhunt must really have an axe to grand with Leinart. As someone posted previously, the coach has absolutely no alleigiance to him because he didn’t draft him. But, is DA really the future of the Cardinals? That’s the question the HC has to ask himself. This division is certainly still winable, so he must think DA gives them the best chance at it. NFC West has the worst set of starting QB’s in the league by far, and I say that because Bradford is unproven, Hasselbeck is past his prime, and Smith can be decent, but relatively unproven.
Point being, it’s time for a fresh start somewhere else, Leinart.

It’s clear that Whisencunt doesn’t like Matt. It was clear when he had one bad pre season game and other wise outplayed Kurt Warner and was benched. Up until late last season he had a better winning % in Arizona than the overrated Warner.
It’s even more clear that he isn’t Whisencunt’s guy.
There are teams that he easily could/should start for and numerous others that he is better than the starting qb, but the teams have made an investment in the player and would not make the change(St. Louis, Detroit, etc.).
I hope he ends up in the NFC west, he could easily start for any of those teams outside of say Hasselbeck in Seattle, but with his injury history he would start half the games in Seattle.
Enjoy your 4-12 record Arizona…

This guy has the same crap attitude JaMarcus Russell had. He expects to be a starter, but doesnt put the effort in to improve. He has been awful. These guys have been coddled their whole lives and now they cant understand why life isnt as easy as it once was.
It amazes me to see some apologists on here for him. There is no team in the NFL that wants to deal with a kid lacking in talent and maturity. I understand Delhomme sucks over in Cleveland. But he has a track record at least. Leinart has never done anything and expects hes going to just walk on the field and be the starter like hes Brett Favre? Come on.

There are a few morons on this site that think they are smarter than the Cardinals coaches. With Leinart running his mouth in the press, he would reveal if there was any single recent event that caused him to get benched, It wasn’t his stats. It was his inability to execute the playbook. If the play is a 30 yd fade, a checkdown is the last resort, not the first option taken. In other words, Leinart has no guts, no glory blood in his veins. He is playing for himself, his own stats, and not for the team. He is playing scared, and his teammates and coaches can sense it. He has either lost his confidence, or never had it.

Matt all I can say is, If you didn’t want to be the backup, you should have played like a starter every time you got the ball. You didn’t so you lose your job to a guy who actually sucks as bad as you. The only one to blame is yourself Matt.

People also believing this kid should start, also need to keep in mind that he has lost the faith of the guys in the locker room. This is a veteran team and when that happens, its time to put the white flag up.

(“He likely could start for the Panthers.”)
WRONG, guess again. i think Leinart has potential to start in Seattle.
(“Matt Moore cant play now that teams have had a chance to see his tendencies.”)
i could agree there.
(“Clausen likely wont be able to play simply because there hasnt been a NFL caliber QB come from Notre Dame since Steve Beurlein.”)
Now you lost me. So Clausen cant do well because he went to Notre Dame. Yeah and Tee Martin is lighting it up in the NFL because of Tennessee and Mark Sanchez WILL bust because of Matt Leinart not doing well, quarterbacks do NOT bust because of their schools, I think Clausen will have a good, not great NFL career.

Love the reference to Kordell Stewart… although it makes me nervous… with Caleb Hanie still hurt, I can see the Bears front office salivating over Leinart… oblivious to Leinart’s mouth/character/entitlement/horrible stats… possibly picking Leinart up off waivers, or worse, trading something for him.
Leinart fits right in with the Rex Grossman/Kordell Stewart/Rick Mirer/(Jay Cutler?) pattern of Bears QBs with lots of potential that fizzle on the field…

Leinart never had a shot in Arizona. Never understood it myself, he was a better college QB than Carson Palmer or Matt Sanchez or David Carr or any other QB you could think up. I just assume it’s because Arizona’s front office is one of the longest-running jokes in the NFL.
I’ve watched Leinart play, and he’s not nearly as bad as people think. The REAL problem was that he never had an O-line, never had a good run game, and played for a handful of NFL coaching rejects who couldn’t win games if they were playing college teams every week. Even worse, those INTs he racked up generally weren’t his own fault. Go ahead, go back and watch the tape (or feel free to just look at numbers on a piece of paper and assume it’s the whole story). You’ll see that most of his INTs were due to receivers missing routes, bobbling easy passes into the air, etc. You can’t blame that on a QB. It’s not like this kid actually got to play a full season or two with Boldin and Fitzgerald in their prime. No, that honor fell to one of the luckiest “right place at the right time” QBs in the history of the NFL.
Arizona and Whisenhunt, however, are both so colossally stupid and inept that they have basically publicly announced their intention to cut Leinart, eliminating any possibility of a favorable trade. Who’s going to give you a first-rounder AND take on that $50m contract, when everyone knows you plan to cut him in a week? What a bunch of bumbling amateur-hour morons. No wonder Arizona is the toilet bowl of the NFL. Poor coaching, worse ownership.
Pete Carroll is going to go after Leinart, but he’ll either wait for Leinart to restructure his contract with the Cards (a la Leroy Hill), or just wait for him to get cut and pick him up on the cheap. Thanks to the countless morons who’ve coached AZ, and the countless media pundits who judge Leinart by his stats, Seattle will be able to pickup Leinart on the CHEAP and pull another Mike Williams restoration project. Pete Carroll has to be loving life right now.
Just like I love being an NFC West fan. You can always count on Arizona to make the worst moves possible and never be a serious threat. The only question now is how long Fitz will tolerate the circus in Arizona before demanding a trade to a team that might actually win a few games in the next decade.

Just watch Leinart in the interviews right after losing to Texas and Vince Young. You could tell he was a spoiled bratt and wouldn’t deal well with adversity. He couldn’t even bring himself to say he got outplayed. The interview later in the locker room was worse calling Vince Young a freak.

ECS – Brougham Boys 74 says: Leinart never had a shot in Arizona. The REAL problem was that he never had an O-line, never had a good run game, and played for a handful of NFL coaching rejects who couldn’t win games if they were playing college teams every week.
—————————————————
Ok, now your stuck on the cough syrup. How would you explain Kurt Warner’s success in the same system, with the same O-line, same run game blah blah blah??? Are you kidding, better than any QB in college huh? You have got to be canadian, that is the only legitamate excuse for the drabble you spill. He was surrounded by talent on both sides of the ball in college, that made him shine, no doubt he did a good job, but the crutch he had at USC made him good. Carson was the last QB to come out of there that could hold his own without the huge supporting cast. He is Capt Checkdown, you check the film, and he will never get a chance to start a whole season with great WR like Boldin and Fitz because he sucks and cant use them, instead he will not take a chance and check it down to a inferrior TE, or a RB out of the back field, and that hasnt worked since Gannon. So dont waste our time with the BS that he never got a chance. Every coach he has had since he has been there has seen they needed someone else, and what now? are they all idiots? Just STFU, this guy is done, move on. Next story dumbass.

JimmySmith says:
September 1, 2010 10:49 AM
I mean Childress thinks T Jack Off is a real QB, why not Matt Leinart? He at least sucks equally bad.
——————————
Got to love it. Do you just go into every article and make a negative Viking remark? What about the packers? Who is there back ups again? TJ has probably done more in his 4 years in the league than either of the Packer backups will do in both their careers combined. That’s pretty sad. Maybe the Pack should go after Leinart.